7dwarfs

You are soooo right about Aldus PageMaker, which allowed us a full 8-page layout in the first iteration, if memory serves me right. The first InDesign was nowhere near as complete as Publisher beta. In fact it was almost unusable for us. We moved to Quark for two or three years.
Thanks Affinity team for a very promising beta.
 

You are soooo right about Aldus PageMaker, which allowed us a full 8-page layout in the first iteration, if memory serves me right. The first InDesign was nowhere near as complete as Publisher beta. In fact it was almost unusable for us. We moved to Quark for two or three years.
Thanks Affinity team for a very promising beta.
 

As I have run out of my daily allocation of reactions to Forum comments (Why? Surely it'easier for the developers to see how many "likes" a comment has rather than having to read loads of "And me's"?), I would like to add my +1 for Data Merge.

Just observation from somebody who switched from Adobe software completely to Affinity for both Photoshop and Illustrator. Same surely will apply for Publisher. In the beginning you will need (and look for) that Adobe "crutches". Old files, clients sending something in known file format and so on. My advice is - weed out Adobe software from your workflow and move entirely to Affinity. Affinity works best with native formats - you can start by making new jobs entirely in Affinity software and after a while you will notice you don't need to look back - why would you? Transition may not be as smooth as one would desire but it is worth it.
Treating Affinity software as something that should work seamlessly with Adobe isn't the way in my experience. When Publisher will reach certain maturity - work within it. Instead of "but in Indesign I could do this! When it will be possible in Publisher" be little more flexible. Indesign was released in what? 2002? And was build up on PageMaker from 90's, right? Imagine all the time they had to polish it (and in my opinion they still failed at one very important thing - making it pleasure to work with). We will get there, but not with first beta Publisher is not made to kill everything that exists for years now at release. It is beginning and for what I see - it will pay up to support Affinity. Because they managed to make daily work (almost :D) a pleasure.

I think you need particularly the import from InDesign CS6 format. Many users do survive with this last perpetual version hoping and praying to be able to finally switch

I am an old pro with desktop publishing and have been using Indesign for many years, and Quark before that, and PageMaker before that. 
 
Some things I need in APub:
Ability to import native Indesign and PDFs and edit them as native APub elements, not as graphics. Ability to preview color separations and overprints. Ability to flow text to multiple text boxes, break text flow, reverse text flow, insert text boxes, delete text boxes and maintain flow, etc. Full paragraph and character style support with nested styles and auto apply styles Robust table support with cell styles, copy and paste rows and columns, repeating headers. Full PSD and AI support, along with AD & AP support Find and replace fonts throughout document Find and replace text by story, document Basic effects such as dropshadow, feather, fade, blend Full corner options Library support Object styles with size and attribute controls Script support such as importing multipage pdfs on each page and calendar creation Ability to embed, unembed, relink, break link, etc for all kinds of links Robust text alignment such as lock to baseline, multiple baseline grid, vertical justify within box. Preview with bleed, without bleed, with and without guides Robust spell and grammar check Support for different binding beyond saddle-stitch, including perfect bind and coil bind Warning if multiple page sizes exist in a document Industry standard pdf output with full transparency support, RIP tested pdfs Full spot color support from day one Logical master page behavior, link pages to master, break link to master, convert objects from master to page level objects Presets for pdf export, text import, document setup, print Easy and logical header and footer, page number and section support Well, that is what comes to mind right now. Could go on and on. Hope this helps.